3 Reasons Why Local SEO is Important
· BlueHat Marketing
In our last piece, we covered a few topics about local SEO: what it is, why you need it, and a few quick tips to shore yours up. Even after that lengthy and informative post, we still do not believe that we were able to cover in enough depth how important it is for your business to work on their local SEO marketing.
The good ol’ fashioned eye test is a great place to start with our analysis of a new phenomenon. Go walk to the centre of whatever city you happen to be in, and count the number of people who are using smartphones. Local people, who also happen to be consumers, are using all sorts of devices, especially their mobile phones to search for, research, and review local businesses. All those people with their phones aren’t just messaging their friends. This is the main reason there has been an explosion in the importance of local SEO. So let’s look at a few facts that will drive home just how important having a finely-tuned local SEO campaign in place is.
Reason 1: More Internet Usage is Via Mobile than PC
For the first time in history, mobile internet usage has exceeded PC internet usage. Think that doesn’t matter for your business’ bottom line? Think again. According to a survey done by comScore, out of the 5,000 people surveyed, 80% of their mobile searches ended up in offline purchases. Now add in that there are literally hundreds of millions of mobile searches being made, and you can see just how powerful it is. To add to that, nearly half of the searches for things like services, restaurants, and travel-related things which usually ended up in purchases from somewhere the consumer had never been before, and you can see how important it is to stand out from the competition.
Reason 2: Mobile searchers are more likely to act quickly
It makes sense, doesn’t it? Think about it. Who is more likely to come and visit your store, someone out on the go and likely in the local area or someone sitting in the comfort of their own home? According to Google, 50% of mobile searches result in a store visit within 24 hours! 50%! That is staggering indeed. The same study also found that 18% of these searches lead to sales. Just imagine the value of converting even 10% of the gigantic volume of local searches being conducted in your particular area. On top of that, 1 in every 3 searches on a smart phone occurs immediately before consumers visit a store. See the power of being visible when someone is on the go, and in need of something?
Reason 3: Being Visible is Crucial
Crucial isn’t even the word here. In fact, we are not even sure we have a word powerful enough to stress how important being visible on the internet is to a mobile user. Without being visible immediately to a user, you have almost a 0% chance of being noticed for a local search. 98% of all searchers choose a business that appears on the first page of results that they get. And why wouldn’t they? Being on the first page shows that you are relevant, popular, and trustworthy. Why would they choose a bar, restaurant, taxi service, or clothing store that is on the 57 th page? Smoothly managed SEO will help to ensure that when someone searches for donuts, that your coffee and donut shop will appear immediately in front of their face.
These 3 facts do more than point out the necessity of having local SEO, they imply a greater trend in how the world of business is evolving. People’s lives are more fluid, on the go, and flexible than they have ever been before, and much of the time the consumer is going to find themselves in unfamiliar territory when making their first purchase in a certain niche. They are going to rely on the search engine to do the work for them. Mobile usage is now more popular than PC usage, mobile users act quicker, and they usually go with the first thing they see. For these reasons you need to turn your attention toward local SEO immediately.
For help with your local SEO , trust the experts at BlueHat Marketing.
